A man who targeted women by stealing their handbags was jailed for two years.

Judge Zoe Smith had deferred the sentence of Kamran Latif at a previous hearing in August to give him a chance to change his ways.

But at the hearing at Reading Crown Court on Friday, December 14, she said to Latif: “On the 20th of August I heard your counsel and from you.

“You said that you were motivated and determined to stop taking handbags and I gave you a real chance to do this and deferred sentence until today.”

Latif, 34, of Field Road, Coley, was told during the period of deferral to be completely crime free, attend Cranston drug agency and comply with its requirements and work to fund the money to compensate his victims.

At the previous hearing, Latif admitted two offences of stealing handbags, theft with another of £155 worth of alcohol from Sainsbury’s in Winnersh and driving off without paying for £20 worth of petrol from a service station in Padworth.

At Friday’s hearing an additional charge – dating back to before the last hearing – was added to the tally which also included 34 similar offices to be taken into consideration.

The new charge which Latif admitted involved stealing a rucksack from a man in the Global Café on June 17. It contained £1,193 worth of electronic equipment including a laptop, iPod, camera and a bottle of Champagne.

Edward Culver, defending, said Latif had completed a preliminary drug course, but had not attended the Cranston drug agency. He had not offended since the last hearing but did not have a job.

Judge Smith said: “You have not in any significant way engaged with the drug agencies. You have continued to take heroin. And you have not saved anything toward compensating your victims.

“I accept you have pleaded guilty to these matters and I have taken that into account.”

She sentenced Latif to 12 months for each of the thefts from a person to run concurrent and 12 months for the remaining thefts taken into considerations to run consecutively.

For the additional matter of the stolen rucksack, he was sentenced to 12 months to run concurrently, for the theft from a shop two months concurrently and for making off without paying, two months concurrently.

At the previous hearing Judge Smith told Latif that taking a woman’s handbag was “not just inconvenience, it causes fear as well”.

And she added: “Her phone is taken, her cards, her money to get a cab is taken, her keys to the door of her house. Then there is the fear of anyone coming to break into the house.

“It’s a terrible thing to do and girls are left stranded on their own.”